Chapter 52 – Juniors of the Lin Family
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“I can lend you a jade slip containing my family’s handed down martial manual, the ‘Nine Paths of Truth’, but only for six hours. I can also give you 5000 gold taels! However there is just one condition; you cannot ever mention that I let you look at the ‘Nine Paths of Truth’ or connect me to it. Otherwise, not only will I have bad luck, the Wang Family may hunt you down and kill you.” Wang Yanfeng said these words in a very low sound.
The Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill could not be bought with mere gold, and Wang Yanfeng at most had only a few thousand gold taels that he could trade with. Therefore he offered his family’s secret skill the ‘Nine Paths of Truth’ as a lure. This was a skill manual handed down the generations of the Wang Family; it was very precious and was kept an absolute secret from all outsiders.
Wang Yanfeng guessed that the only thing Lin Ming knew was some heart mantra, and did not know any martial art skills. As long as Lin Ming did not mention anything about this then no one would notice. Wang Yanfeng thought that even this Lin Ming wouldn’t be so stupid as to let others discover he had learnt a forbidden Wang Family martial skill and thus bitterly experience the Wang Family chasing him down to kill him. This was why he was willing to take this risk out of desperation.
Wang Yanfeng estimated that with Lin Ming’s inferior natural talent, he would not be able to comprehend much with only six hours.
“The ‘Nine Paths of Truth’? And I can only look at it for six hours?” Lin Ming sneered. These conditions, he wouldn’t even disdain himself to glance at it. Compared to the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’, the ‘Nine Paths of Truth’ was nothing but trash. “I regretfully decline. I have no interest in this.”
Wang Yanfeng blushed red like a tomato. “Lin Ming, are you even aware of your own circumstances! With your inferior talent it is impossible to breakthrough to the Third Stage of Body Transformation, even if you eat the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill! But if you practice a bit of the heart mantras of the ‘Nine Paths of Truth’ your control of your true essence will be enhanced and there will be endless benefits! This rare family martial skill handed down in my Wang Family cannot even be purchased by millions of gold!”
Lin Ming said, “The Seven Profound Martial House has no lack of heart mantras, and they are also much more profound when compared to the ‘Nine Paths of Truth’ by many fold. Why would I want to look at anything of yours?”
“Humph. The Seven Profound Martial House do have top-tier heart mantras, but these top-tier skills manuals are only passed down to core disciples. You know what a core disciple is? Those are the true disciples chosen for the Seven Profound Valleys. In the future if there are no accidents, then they will be able to go to the Seven Profound Valleys. Even senior apprentice brother Ling Sen of the Heavenly Abode does not have the qualifications to learn them. As far as I know there are only a handful of core disciples. Besides Qin Xingxuan, most aren’t even from the Sky Fortune Kingdom but from some mystical cultivating martial family. You think to have any hope?! You’re dreaming! Even I didn’t expect your audacity!”
The large sects were brutally strict on the inheritance of their skill manuals. This was because they relied on the existence of these skill manuals to be the cornerstone of their power. Even in the Seven Profound Martial House, the majority of disciples could only learn second-tier skill manuals. Wang Yanfeng knew this as a fact.
However, Lin Ming had the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’. Let alone the top-tier manuals within the Seven Profound Martial House, even the secret arts of the headmaster of a large sect would not make him feel a hint of jealousy.
Lin Ming said, “Just because you don’t expect anything doesn’t mean I don’t have hope. I’m sorry but I’m busy right now. I’m going first.”
“You! Good! Very good! You think that just because you managed to barely defeat me last time, you are so outstanding compared to me? You just wait, wait for me to take back everything that you took from me and I will stamp on you beneath my heel. You think that you can become a core disciple just by your own efforts? Don’t make me laugh. I’ll wait and watch as you become a stepping stone for others. The higher you stand, the more miserably you will fall!”
Ling Mind had completely ignored Wang Yanfeng’s indignant cursing. Wang Yanfeng had already been defeated by him. In his mind, he may be weaker than others, he may be weaker than Zhu Yan, Qin Xingxuan, and Ling Sen, but he would never let himself feel inferior to someone he had already defeated. If one day, Lin Ming was beaten by someone he had already defeated, then he would reflect upon his mistakes.
Shortly before noon, Lin Ming moved all his belongings to his new residence. The lands of the Seven Profound Martial House were broad, and they had enough space to give each disciple of the Earth Hall a room of their own.
Lin Ming’s room was located at a small secluded space in the back mountains. Its back faced the mountains and there was a deep, clean pool at the side. There were century old trees which formed a huge canopy that shaded the room. Even in the summer it was quiet and refreshing, it was an excellent place to cultivate in peace.
Lin Ming was satisfied with his new room. He sat cross-legged in bed and began to read the contents of the jade slip.
The jade slip explained the rules and systems of the Seven Profound Martial House, including violations, regulations, punishments, challenge rules, class hours, and practice arrangements and so on. He finally reached the end, where there were ranking rewards that were provided by the Seven Profound Martial House.
Seeing these, Lin Ming’s interest was piqued. A major portion of the reason he joined the Seven Profound Martial House was for these resources.
The Seven Profound Martial House had many disciples; they were ranked on one’s individual achievement in the Ten Thousand Killing Array
Several hundred years ago, the Seven Profound Valley was founded by seven supreme experts. Among them, one excelled in the creation and construction of magic arrays. Over the years, the array methods were handed down generation by generation within the Seven Profound Valleys. In the examination of the sect disciples, they would occasionally use illusionary killing arrays. The Seven Profound Martial House was under the governance of the Seven Profound Valleys; they naturally had advantages and customs associated with them.
The magic array used for ranking was calling the Ten Thousand Killing Array. Once one entered, they would fight countless waves of enemies one after the other. In the midst of these enemies were vicious beasts, and also humans.
Their final ranking would be decided by the total number and cultivation of the enemies they defeated.
Among these enemies, the weakest was equal to a martial artist at the Second Stage of Body Transformation. If they defeated one Second Stage Body Transformation enemy they would receive one point, if they defeated one at the Peak of the Second Stage they would receive 5 points, Third Stage of Body Transformation 10 points, peak of Third Stage 50 points, Fourth Stage of Body Transformation 100 points, peak of Fourth Stage of Body Transformation 500 points, and so on…
The enemies after one first entered the Ten Thousand Killing Array would be at the Second Stage of Body Transformation, and behind them the enemies would become increasingly more difficult to handle. The Fourth Stage of Body Transformation would come one after the other, unceasingly until death.
The final result was the accumulated score one had before death, and this would be demonstrated on the Ranking Stone.
If you had a high ranking, then one could obtain many advantages.. For instance, Soul Gathering Pellets. If you placed after 200, then you would receive a Soul Gathering Pellet every three months. If you placed in the first ten, you would receive 10 Soul Gathering Pellets every month. Ten Soul Gathering Pellets were equal to 2000 gold taels. This was an amount that not even a wealthy junior from an aristocratic family could disregard.
The reality was that the Soul Gathering Pellets were only secondary, after all, this was something that the rich could buy with money. But there were also resources given that not even the very wealthy could purchase, for instance, legacy skill manuals. If one placed in the top 200, then they could choose the most preliminary and basic of skill manuals. If one placed within the top ten, they could freely enter certain secret rooms of the Seven Profound Martial House and choose a skill manual they wanted to learn.
But if one placed in first placed, they could even have a chance to learn the most guarded core skill manuals of the Seven Profound Martial House. These were top quality skill manuals that only core disciples could hope to learn. Even juniors of the Royal Family and the highest ranking families would have no opportunity to ever study these.
Certainly, Lin Ming had not much interest at all in skill manuals, but instead the resources.
The Seven Profound Valleys was a sect that was proficient in creating magic arrays. At the beginning of the establishment of the Seven Profound Martial Houses, the Seven Profound Valley had once sent out Xiantian experts to place these magic arrays in many of the Martial Houses so that the disciples could use them for practice. Using these, one could practice their skills with twice the result and half the effort. But the number of these arrays was limited, and moreover they needed a massive number of true essence stones to activate and maintain. Therefore not everyone could enter these magic killing arrays, the qualifications one needed were similar to the ranking they had.
So in the Seven Profound Martial House, ranking was supreme. With a higher ranking, one would enjoy more resources. The strong get stronger and the weak get weaker. The disciples there were all talents; only by stepping on the corpses of others would they have a chance to bloom.
“I have already officially entered the Seven Profound Martial House. If I want to obtain sufficient resources, then I have first got to get a good ranking from the Ten Thousand Killing Array, but… my medicinal inscription symbol isn’t ready. If I start practicing now, I might be able to begin drawing one in half a month. To display the maximum efficiency of the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill and the Golden Snake Scarlet Pill, it will be worth it to spend the time doing so.”
Lin Ming said to himself, and begun practicing his inscription again…
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On the morning of the second day, Lin Ming rose out of bed early and washed himself. Today was the official teaching day of the Seven Profound Martial House.
Teaching did not involve explaining skill manuals. It only involved cultivation tips, elementary basic knowledge, taking care of the body and so forth. In the core curriculum aspects, the Seven Profound Martial House was very loose. There were seven or eight possible courses they could attend and listen to. Each disciple chose based on their own interests and could even attend one at random, or even not even bother attending at all.
For today’s lectures, the jade slip had already explained that it would be explanations of the foundation body techniques.
Although Lin Ming had inherited a highest quality skill manual, he was actually still very limited in the understanding of the basics. He had not received any legitimate martial arts training after all, and therefore these classes had a very high significance to him.
The location of this lecture was the Seven Profound Martial House’s Martial Lecture Hall. When Lin Ming arrived at the Martial Lecture Hall, he found that it was already packed with people already sitting; there were probably around 70 or 80.
In this group were not only the 53 new disciples, but also some old ones who had come to listen.
The Seven Profound Martial House’s Heavenly Abode and Earth Hall had altogether 230 disciples. The Human Hall had almost 400 disciples. Altogether the total number of disciples surpassed 600. Out of these 600 there were several dozen who came through their connections, although even though they did use their connections to enter, that did not mean they would be horrible.
In the Seven Profound Martial House, each martial artist could study for 5 years at most. 5 years later, if they were not yet 22 years old, they could apply to stay another year, and after that must graduate.
If one’s strength was high enough, they could apply to graduate ahead of time, but, most students chose to stay the entire full five years, as there were many resources that could not be found outside.
After Lin Ming entered the Martial Lecture Hall he casually strolled around for a place to sit. As he did, he noticed that there were a few people whose gazes drifted towards him.
Lin Ming looked back and saw that these people looking at him had friendly, smiling faces.
Mmm? Did these people know him?
“You are Lin Ming?” A handsome youth in blue clothes asked with a jolly smile.
“Mmm, may I ask who you are?”
“Let me introduce myself. My name is Lin Wu, this is my younger sister Lin Fengyuan.” The handsome blue clothed youth waved at a delicate young girl at his side.
Lin Wu, Lin Fengyuan, could it be…
Lin Ming was surprised, he opened his mouth to ask, “You are the direct descendant juniors of Green Mulberry City’s Lin Family?”
Lin Wu smiled and said, “You’re correct, we are all one family.”
The Lin Family was a large and respected family in Green Mulberry City. Although they did not have any noble titles that were bestowed to them, their family had several generations of doing business and thus had a very rich heritage. In such a large family, that there would be some outstanding young talents in the Seven Profound Martial House could be considered a normal matter. A few months ago, Lin Ming had borrowed a Pass Card to enter the Zither Hall; this was lent to him by Lin Xiaodong.